costxdesktopCostX Tutorials

This section includes the basic tutorials usefull for practicing CostX in order to know how to use the software for your work. However, an awareness about the software is useful before you start practicing. This 5 minutes Introduction Video provided by Exactal will help you know what CostX is (if you haven't explored about it yet). If you are interested, you may view this 40 minutes full demonstration. It is not based on the latest version of CostX, but still worth watching.

Most video and graphical contents here are copyrighted to respecetive publishers. What we do here is to present various contents in a logical manner that will help potential users. We do not have a commercial interest in promoting the product. Upon recognition of the need for Quantity Surveyors to be prepared to face future challenges, these tutorials are compiled for educational purpose in mind. Though some may include certain promotional material, they would also have educational value.


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This is a simple guide on getting started with CostX. I use the education license version for this guide so that this will be useful for both students and new users.CostX

Start CostX from [Start] > All Programs > Exactal > CostX. If this is your first time to use in your PC, you will be prompted to insert license details. Complete the licensing by providing correct details. Otherwise or after this, you will be prompted with “select building” window. Here you can select an existing building, or create new building or even a new project.

measurementscreenshotThis is a beginer tutorial on taking measurement using CostX. It introduces the measurement tab in the task plane and shows how to use tools in the Drawings and Dimensions tabs in the Ribbon effectively. It also introduces the techniques that can be used to increase the efficiency level in taking off measurement.

However, this does not cover some of the essential things required for a beginer viz. 

  • Starting CostX
  • Loading Drawings
  • Adding Dimension Groups

Read the Get Started with CostX for brief instructions on above.

workbookscreenshot

This is the second beginer video introducing the workbook where estimating is carried out. The video shows a Cost Plan and using that various featuers are introduced.

CostX BIMThis is an overview of BIM estimating with CostX. I recomend you view this to get a feeling of what you can do with a BIM model before you move to the next video. 

BIM MeasureCost X can measure from a scan image of a hand sketch to a BIM model. One may see BIM as a 3D model, but it is beyond conventional 3D models. Read Application of BIM (or all articles in BIM World for better understanding) to know more about BIM models. CostX can effectively and intuitively measure quantities from BIM models. CostX is built in with features you can view and read the model for estimating purposes

This video tutorial is about how you can use BIM models in CostX.

Revit DesktopCostX supports Autodesk’s data rich Design Web Format (DWF and DWFx). DWF is an open file format that is used to share designs across variety of applications. For simplicity, you may consider DWF as an alternative to IFC, the native BIM file format. However, information included in two formats may slightly vary. CostX very well support DWF fromat, has number of built in features for automatic quantity take-off and estimating.

This video tutorial explains how you can use Revit (Autodesk’s BIM application) effectively with CostX.

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